


Raging Fire

by supreme_genius



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Fraction!Kate, Hurt/Comfort, post winter soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-07 01:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1879917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supreme_genius/pseuds/supreme_genius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a chance encounter in LA, Kate and Bucky become close friends.<br/>After they both join the Avengers, they continue to bond.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raging Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Marvel, Bucky, or Kate.  
> I only own my ridiculous ideas.  
> This is partially beta'd.  
> This is my first shot at fic for a different fandom other than Grimm.
> 
> The title is also the title of a song by Phillip Phillips.  
> I don't own that either, or him.  
> But it's good and you should go listen to it.

It’s a slow day in Avengers Tower. The criminals of New York seem to be giving the team a much-needed break. Down in the lab, Tony and Bruce are working on some new suit tech. Tony finally broke down and asked Bruce for help a few days ago; Bruce handed him a notebook already filled with ideas. “I knew you’d eventually give in,” is all Bruce had to say. Eventually Clint goes down to join them and work on some new arrows. Tony makes him sit on the other side of the lab. “Just in case,” he says but what he means is, “I don’t want you to blow us all up, Barton.” Steve and Sam are in the game room, listening to Frank Sinatra (or whatever Sam has picked out for Steve to listen to this week) and shooting a few rounds of billiards. Natasha keeps to herself, enjoying the silence, as she cleans her gun collection, making sure all are in working order. Thor is out with Jane helping with some research.

Kate and Bucky are sprawled out in her bed, listening to Led Zeppelin and watching the rain drops gather on the window pane as a storm begins to surround them.

“I think Zeppelin might be my favorite,” Bucky says, rolling over on his side and propping himself up on his elbow.

“Yeah?” Kate asks, not moving any more than raising an eyebrow. “Me, too.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Kate sits up gives Bucky all her attention. She can tell he’s going to ask her something personal; can tell by the look on his face – scrunched up, brows furrowed, eyes looking down. She doesn’t mind, though. She and Bucky are always honest with each other. They’d met by chance in LA and just sort of stuck together ever since. When a newly-rebuilt SHIELD sent agents (Steve, Sam, and Maria) to her trailer, she thought they were coming to take Bucky away. Never would she have thought they were coming to ask both of them to join the Avengers. But here they are, fighting side-by-side.

“You ever miss California?”

“Yeah, sometimes. I miss the warm weather and the beach.” She smiles and looks away. “I miss late nights on the beach.” The two of them spent most of their free time lying around on the beach – Kate trying to tan her pale skin and Bucky just tagging along for the company.

“I meant… do you miss what we had?”

“What’re you talking about, man?”

“Before we were Avengers. Do you miss it just being us, working random PI jobs, barely scrapping enough money together to get by?”

 _Oh_ , she thinks. She certainly doesn’t miss barely being able to pay her rent and buy food. She likes the stability she has now – constant work, a financial cushion. But she knows what Bucky is getting at – the simplicity of being on their own, being their own bosses, not having to answer to Coulson or Fury or Hill. Her voice is soft, “yeah. I miss it.”

Bucky nods. Sometimes he just needs to be reminded that life was pretty good in LA. He enjoyed it, all of it. Even the lack of money and steady work. Because life was simple. He wasn’t worrying about alien invasions or corrupt government organizations crashing down and trying to rebuild. He liked the calm and quiet – it helped him relax, which helped him heal. Sometimes he needed to be reminded that when Kate said she wanted to take the job, that it wasn’t her trying to run away from him.

“But you still like it here, right?”

Bucky nods again. “It’s pretty good, I guess. Certainly beats some of my other living arrangements.”

Kate knows he’s mostly talking about his time with HYDRA. It had taken him quite a while to open up to her about everything that happened. But now she knows it all. He’d been afraid of telling her, of scaring her, of chasing her away. Kate never asks about it, always waits until he brings it up. What she does ask him about are the forties; she has a genuine curiosity about the era. Seeing the sadness start to mar his face, she changes the subject as she usually does when he gets that look.

“Tell me about Brooklyn in the forties,” she says as she moves closer and curls up against his side.

“I don’t know what else there is to tell you.” He wraps an arm – his metal one – around her shoulders. He likes that Kate never shies away from his metal arm; makes him feel almost normal or, at least, not like a freak.

Kate sighs. With her head on his shoulder, she takes notice of his shirt. As usual, Bucky has got on a grey shirt. And now that Kate starts to think about it; Bucky wears a lot of grey. She can’t recall seeing him in another color except maybe black. “Can I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure,” Bucky says somewhat tenuously.

“Why do you wear so much grey?”

“Huh?”

Kate turns a bit, setting her chin on Bucky’s chest and looking up at him with big blue eyes. “You wear a lot of grey shirts. I don’t…I don’t think I’ve ever really seen you in an actual color.”

Bucky shrugs a bit. “I like grey, I guess.”

“You _like_ grey? C’mon. Grey is barely a color. We should get you some purple.”

Bucky smiles for a moment thinking about how he’d look if he walked around matching Kate, but then his smile fades.

“What’s wrong?” Kate asks, already sensing a change in his mood. When Bucky doesn’t answer, Kate continues, “I’m sorry. Grey is a great color.”

Bucky shakes his head. “It’s fine.” But it’s not.

“Bucky,” Kate whispers. “Let me in.”

“I wear grey because…” He pauses. He knows Kate would never judge him. She knows almost everything about him and she’s still here, she still looks at him the same way she did before she knew. “Because I feel like it sort of…camouflages my arm.”

Kate lets out a heavy breath and reaches out to push a piece of hair from his face. “Oh, Bucky.” She tries not to let the tears welling up spill down her cheeks. She sits up and takes a hold of Bucky’s metal hand, pressing a kiss to each finger, the palm, the back, wrist, up his forearm, bicep and up to his shoulder. Bucky shudders when Kate kisses the scarring where his metal arm attaches to flesh.

“Kate,” he says in a breathy voice, turning towards her and pressing their foreheads together.

“This is a part of you, Bucky. You can’t change that. I’m sorry. I know there are days when you hate it and wish you could just rip it off. But you’ve also done so much good with it, helped so many people.” She leans forward, just enough to press a chaste kiss to his lips. “You’re no less of a person and I don’t love you any less.”

A few tears roll down Bucky’s cheeks. He feels like he doesn’t deserve any of this. How could a gal as great as Kate possibly love someone like him?

“Come on. We’re gonna go to that little thrift shop across town and we’re gonna get you some more colors.”

“Lots of purple?” Bucky asks with half a smile.

Kate smiles making her eyes squint and tears fall. “Yeah, Bucky, lots of purple.” She knows he probably won’t wear any other colors besides grey and black outside of the tower. She knows he might not even wear any colors outside her room and his. But she also knows that when they’re alone together, like they are now, he’s never gonna wear another grey shirt.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I'm only up-to-date on Fraction's Hawkeye.  
> I haven't gotten to Young Avengers yet.


End file.
